Germantown, Philadelphia

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Map of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania highlighting Germantown Borough prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854

Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era, a few of which are open to the public.

Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane. Today, the next neighborhood to the northwest, Mount Airy, starts around Johnson Street, although there is no universally recognized exact boundary. Nicetown lies to the south and Logan, Ogontz, and West Oak Lane lie to the east.

Contents

History[edit]

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Pictures from Old-Germantown. The top two houses are that of the Pastorius family, the one on the left around 1683 on the right around 1715. The center structure is that of the house and printing business of the Caurs family, shown around 1735. The bottom structure is the market place show around 1820.
Seal of Germantown, 1691
Plan of lots in Germantown, PA in 1689, showing lot owners in 1689 and 1714.

Germantown was founded by German settlers, thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld (Germany),[1][2] in 1681. Today the founding day of Germantown on October 6, 1683, is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania." Francis Daniel Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Derick Isacks op den Graeff and his brother Abraham Isacks op den Graeff, Reynier Tyson, and Tennis Coender were burgesses, besides six committeemen. They had authority to hold "the general court of the corporation of Germantowne", to make laws for the government of the settlement, and to hold a court of record. This court went into operation in 1690, and continued its services for sixteen years. Sometimes, to distinguish Germantown from the upper portion of German township, outside the borough, the township portion was called Upper Germantown.

In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Updengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. The petition was mainly based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).

When Philadelphia was occupied by the British during the American Revolutionary War, British units were housed in Germantown. In the Battle of Germantown, in 1777, the Continental Army attacked this garrison. During the battle, a party of citizens fired on the British troops, as they marched up the avenue, and mortally wounded British Brigadier General Agnew. The Americans withdrew after firing on one another in the confusion of the battle, leading to the determination that the battle resulted in a defeat of the Americans. However, the battle is sometimes considered a victory by Americans. The American loss was 673 and the British loss was 575, but along with the Army's success under Brigadier General Horatio Gates at Saratoga on October 17 when John Burgoyne surrendered, the battle led to the official recognition of the Americans by France, which formed an alliance with the Americans afterward.

During his presidency, George Washington and his family lodged at the Deshler-Morris House in Germantown to escape the city and the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. The first bank of the United States was also located here during his administration.

5442 Germantown Avenue, The Deshler-Morris House (1773)

Germantown proper, and the adjacent German Township, were incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854 by the Act of Consolidation.

Bright April, a 1946 book written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli, features scenes of Germantown of the 1940s while addressing the divisive issue of racial prejudice experienced by African Americans, a daring topic for a children's book of that time.

Between 1954 and 1956 Germantown experienced an influx of African Americans, resulting in a decline in property values and triggering a "white flight" of the majority of white residents to the suburbs.[3]

Eugene Stackhouse, a retired former president of the Germantown Historical Society says that the transition of Germantown into a more diverse and ethnic neighborhood was the result of the now illegal practice of blockbusting. "It was a great disgrace. Cheap houses would be sold to a black family, then the realtors would go around and tell the neighbors that the blacks are invading," said Stackhouse.[4]

The current demography of Germantown reflects this shift. As of the 2010 US Census, Germantown is 77.2% black and 15.2% white, 3.2% non-white Hispanic, and 1.5% Asian.[5]

Education[edit]

Primary and secondary schools[edit]

Market Square Presbyterian Church and Civil War Monument, Market Square

Germantown, as are all areas of Philadelphia, is zoned to schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Germantown High School is in Germantown.

Mastery Charter Schools operates the Mastery Charter Pickett Campus (7-12, MCPC) in Germantown.[6] The school opened in August 2007.[7] The charter system headquarters is located at Pickett.[7][8]

Germantown is the location of the private Quaker schools Germantown Friends School, Greene Street Friends School, and The William Penn Charter School, the oldest Quaker school in the world. The Pennsylvania School for the Deaf occupies the former site of Germantown Academy, which moved to Fort Washington, Pennsylvania in 1965.

Public libraries[edit]

Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library

Free Library of Philadelphia operates public libraries. The Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library is located in Germantown. The library was given its current name in 2002, after Joseph E. Coleman, a member of the Philadelphia City Council.[9]

Historic sites[edit]

National Historic Landmark Districts[edit]

National Historic Districts[edit]

National Historic Landmarks[edit]

National Register of Historic Places[edit]

Other sites listed separately on the NRHP:

Other historic sites[edit]

The Concord School (1775), 6308 Germantown Avenue

Notable residents[edit]

See also[edit]

Portal icon Philadelphia portal

References[edit]

  1. ^ Reuters: German American Day 2008
  2. ^ The Library of Congress: Chronology 'The Germans in America'
  3. ^ Countryman, Michael (2006). Up South. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 72. 
  4. ^ Anna Berezowska and Genevieve LeMay (February 4, 2011). "Germantown: A Town Of Its Own". Philadelphia Neighborhoods. 
  5. ^ "A City Transformed The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years". Philadelphia Research Initiative. The Pew Charitable Trusts. Retrieved 16 February 2013. 
  6. ^ "Mastery volunteers spend Columbus Day Beautifying Pickett." Mastery Charter Schools. October 10, 2008. Retrieved on September 10, 2012.
  7. ^ a b "Pickett Campus : About." Mastery Charter Schools. Retrieved on September 10, 2012. "Our Location 5700 Wayne Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19144"
  8. ^ "Contact Us." Mastery Charter Schools. Retrieved on September 10, 2012. "Address: 5700 Wayne Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19144"
  9. ^ "Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library." Free Library of Philadelphia. Retrieved on October 19, 2012.
  10. ^ NRHP Focus[dead link]
  11. ^ National Park Service
  12. ^ National Historic Landmarks
  13. ^ Wyck House
  14. ^ Hood Cemetery
  15. ^ Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963. 
  16. ^ Purcell, L. Edward. (1993). Who Was Who in the American Revolution. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 
  17. ^ "New Digital Project to Focus on Great Depression". Albert M. Greenfield Center for 20th-Century History. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 22 August 2012. 
  18. ^ a b http://www.ushistory.org/germantown/people/kuhn.htm
  19. ^ Singer, Natasha. "Robert L. McNeil Jr., Chemist Who Introduced Tylenol, Dies at 94", The New York Times, June 3, 2010. Accessed June 4, 2010.

External links[edit]

Resources[edit]
NWPhilaDistrict.PNG
Incorporated Districts, Boroughs, and Townships in the County of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854
PhilaCnty1854.png

Coordinates: 40°02′37″N 75°10′55″W / 40.04361°N 75.18194°W / 40.04361; -75.18194

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